United’s advantage lasted a mere eight minutes before Bastian Schweinsteiger levelled with a crisp half-volley although his night ended in disappointment after he picked up a second yellow card for a trip on Wayne Rooney in injury time.

Guardiola cut a spiky figure in his post-match interviews but insisted he was happy with the 1-1 draw.

He told Sky: “I am pretty satisfied. Man United is one of the best teams in the world.

“We have scored an away goal which is important, but we also got lucky that the efforts from (Danny) Welbeck and Rooney didn't go in.

“The goal we conceded was difficult to defend. It's never easy to play against a team which defends so deeply. We will see if we can find some solutions for the match in Munich.

"It's always dangerous when you go into the second leg with a 1-1 draw, but even a 2-1 victory would have been dangerous for us. We will try to win the second leg and I am sure we can do it.

“I have full confidence in my players and hope the fans in Munich will push us like the United supporters did for their team today.”

Bayern enjoyed 70 per cent possession but struggled to find a way past a well-marshalled United rearguard.

And midfielder Toni Kroos said: “It was a difficult match. We dominated the whole time, as expected, but United fought very well. They defended with almost everybody and conceded very few chances.

“Nevertheless they were sometimes dangerous on the break. We knew that they would play like this.

“We deserved the equaliser. We tried everything but we could not create as many chances as we are used to. The result is okay, we still have all the options for the second leg.

“It was disrespectful to talk about a walkover beforehand, it is still a Champions League quarter-final.”